Uncommon Things

In 2010 I have found some uncommon things in the Horse and Jockey area.In June I found several Bee orchids at a site where I had previously seen them,so called because bees try to mate with the flowers and in so doing pollinate them,although they can self pollinate if bees don"t  show up.

A Bee Orchid (Ophrys apifera)27/06/2010



27/06/2010



I also found the Marsh Hellebourine another beautiful orchid.

On the 7/07/2010 I found the caterpillar of the Small Eggar moth which has only been previously found in the Burren, and earlier this year in Donegal.This caterpillar lives in tents in Whitethorn hedges and the moth flies January to March.

 Adelphocoris seticornis nymph

Adelphocoris seticornis adult

Later in July I photographed a shield bug I didn"t recognise ,it took a while but it has been identified as Adelphocoris seticornis ,a rare bug only previously recorded 3 times in the S E of the country.I found both adult and nymph stages so it is breeding on site.

The site also has Marsh Fritillary butterflies on site these have been covered in a previous blog report.

The site is small all these were found in an area of less than 100m x 100m of cutover bog.